Sports
March (Hockey) Madness Continues for Rams
New Canaan is into the state tournament semis with shutout of North Haven.
The New Canaan Rams are in the "Final Four" of the CIAC Hockey Tournament. The Rams beat North Haven on Saturday afternoon 4-0 with Andrew Leslie leading the way with two goals in the third period—both in four-on-four situations.
"This was a blue-collar and now we're we wanted to be, " said Leslie.
"It wasn't pretty today but more of a case of hard work paying off," said line-mate Sam Stanton.
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The Rams scored their first goal on a power play in the opening period when Tim Robustelli scored on a rebound of a Kris Nugent shot. "Robo" was in perfect position when the puck came out front and he wasted no time in giving New Canaan a 1-0 lead.
In the second period, the Rams scored on another power play. Leslie shot from the right dot and Stanton re-directed it into the goal for a 2-0 lead after two.
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New Canaan picked up its forecheck in the third period and scored two more goals. Leslie got his first with both teams down a man when he intercepted a pass deep in the Indians' zone when he found a small window top shelf and made it 3-0 early in the period. Leslie found a small window top shelf and hit his target.
With just over two minutes left Leslie ended the scoring with an assist from Kris Nugent for the 4-0 final.
The Rams defense was taking care of business as they've done all season and when North Haven did manage to get some quality scoring opportunities, Tim Nowacki turned them away—he was 22 for 22 on the night.
New Canaan heads to a semifinal round game with Fairfield Prep, 4-0 winners over Ridgefield in another quarterfinal game. The Rams could find themselves facing rival Darien again in the final—the Blue Wave surpassed Tri-Town 6-0 and will play will play Hamden (7-3 winners over Notre Dame of Fairfield) in the semis. Both semifinal games will be played at the Ingalls Rink at Yale on Wednesday night.
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KEY STATS
Scoring:
1st Period
- New Canaan—Robustelli (pp) from Nugent at 9:55
2nd Period
- New Canaan—Stanton (pp) from Leslie at 11:30
3rd Period
- New Canaan—Leslie (unassisted) at 2:40; Leslie from Nugent at 12:57
